Every now and then, I need a small amount of lemon curd for a recipe – and I don’t want to make a big huge batch. In those instances, I will use this recipe (below) for a very quick cooking microwaved lemon curd, instead of using my more time consuming big batch lemon curd recipe. The [...]

Now that it’s winter time, Japanese Fuyu Persimmons (a.k.a. “Fuyu Kaki“) are in season! (Fuyu persimmons are the non-astringent [sweet] short/flattened ones that you eat when semi-firm… not the astringent acorn/sphere shaped ones that can only be eaten when soft and squishy.) I found three of the largest Fuyu kaki that I’ve ever seen… put [...]

I love pickles…. especially the salty and sour kind! Kosher dill pickles, cornichons, giardineira, Japanese umeboshi… they’re all good. If you like pickles too, they are quite easy to make – simple refrigerator pickles can be made to taste (you can make them with all kinds of flavors and spices… whatever you like), and are [...]

Last week, some friends gave us a bag of guavas from their backyard tree. The guavas were perfectly ripe, and very fragrant… Great timing, as I was planning to make some fall jams and jellies to give away during the holidays! While some guava jam recipes don’t call for added pectin… I think it’s a [...]

A few years ago, I got a Wilton Mini Bundt Pan. I really like the size of this pan because you can make smaller mini bundt cakes that can be given away to friends and family (or as gifts)… while still keeping some cake for yourself! For portion control, these smaller cakes are also great [...]

Over the weekend, we visited the Carlsbad Strawberry Company‘s “U-Pick” strawberry fields. For $20, they give you a large KFC sized paper bucket (and two adult admission tickets), and you can go down the rows of strawberries to pick and fill up your bucket. This was a really fun experience – our little nephew had [...]

It was my brother’s birthday last week and instead of a birthday cake, he requested “Brownie Sundaes with Hot Fudge Sauce”. I decided to use my favorite brownie recipe as the base for these sundaes and thought that this would be a good time to post an easy-to make hot fudge sauce recipe – one [...]

In my free time, I like to go through the “food & drink” section of Pinterest, and drool all over the delicious looking photos. Making the rounds around Pinterest… I’ve seen several links for versions of “Cake Batter Fudge”. After seeing the pictures of Cake Batter Fudge over and over… I couldn’t take it anymore, [...]

Every Halloween, I go through the same thing. I stay up really really late the night before carving Jack o’lanterns (storing them in the empty garage refrigerator overnight)… then I put them out at dusk to greet all the neighborhood kids that come by trick or treating. After the crowds have gone, I reclaim the [...]

Summertime is when I tend to make a bunch of jam… fruit is fresh, in season, and typically on sale! A few days ago, my friend brought me 4 pineapples from her grocery run up to the Asian market in Orange County… she had a craving for pineapple jam and was hoping I would be [...]